Hospital Events 2008/09 and 2009/10

Summary

This publication focuses on publicly funded and privately funded hospital events in 2008/09 and 2009/10, and also shows trends from 1995/96.

It contains summarised data tables, figures and commentary of:

• hospital discharges
• hospital procedures
• hospital discharges involving injury and poisoning.

Key points

Overview

Hospital discharges

• There were more than 1.1 million discharges from New Zealand hospitals in 2009/10. This equates to 21,794.8 publicly funded hospitalisations per 100,000 people and 1407.7 privately funded hospitalisations per 100,000 people (age-standardised).
• There were 310 more publicly funded hospitalisations and 147 fewer privately funded hospitalisations per 100,000 people in 2009/10 compared with 2008/09.

Hospital procedures

• More than 1.5 million procedures were performed in New Zealand hospitals in 2009/10. This equates to 28,617.5 publicly funded procedures and 2926.8 privately funded procedures per 100,000 people (age-standardised).
• There were 1449 more publicly funded procedures and 336 fewer privately funded procedures per 100,000 people in 2009/10 compared with 2008/09.

Hospital discharges involving injury and poisoning

• There were 180,042 discharges involving injury and poisoning from New Zealand hospitals in 2009/10. This equates to 3595.1 hospitalisations per 100,000 people (age-standardised).
• There were 87 more hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning per 100,000 people in 2009/10 compared with 2008/09.

Sex

• In 2009/10 there were:
  • 79 male hospitalisations for every 100 female hospitalisations
  • 80 male procedures for every 100 female procedures
  • 112 male hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning for every 100 female hospitalisations.
• From 1995/96 to 2009/10, females had higher age-standardised rates of hospital discharges and hospital procedures compared with males, while males had a higher rate of hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning compared with females.

Age

• Generally, older patients (aged 65 years and over) had higher rates of hospital discharges, procedures and hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning compared with other age groups in 2009/10.
• Young patients aged 0–4 years and females aged 15–49 years also had higher hospitalisation and procedure rates compared with other age groups in 2009/10. Many of these hospitalisations were for pregnancy and childbirth events (including babies born in hospital).

Ethnicity

• In 2009/10 Māori made up 15.2% of the New Zealand population and accounted for:
  • 16 out of every 100 publicly funded hospital discharges
  • 15 out of every 100 publicly funded hospital procedures
  • 15 out of every 100 hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning.
• Māori had higher rates of publicly funded hospital discharges, hospital procedures and hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning compared with non-Māori in each year from 1995/96 to 2009/10.

Deprivation

• Areas with the highest levels of deprivation had publicly funded hospitalisation and procedure rates approximately twice that of the least deprived areas in 2009/10.
• Areas with the highest levels of deprivation had privately funded hospitalisation and procedure rates less than half that of the least deprived areas in 2009/10.
• At all levels of deprivation Māori had significantly higher rates of publicly funded hospital discharges, hospital procedures and hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning compared with non-Māori in 2009/10.

District health board region

• Over half of North Island DHB regions and one South Island DHB region had significantly higher hospitalisation rates than the New Zealand rate in 2009/10.
• The majority of North Island DHB regions and half of South Island DHB regions had significantly higher procedure rates than the national rate in 2009/10.
• Nearly two-thirds of North Island DHB regions had significantly higher rates for hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning than the New Zealand rate in 2009/10.

Selected diagnoses and procedures

• For most selected diagnoses (including those for hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning), male hospitalisation rates were higher than female rates in 2009/10.
• For the majority of selected procedures and selected diagnoses (including those for hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning), Māori had higher rates compared with non-Māori in 2009/10.

Length of stay and bed days

• The average length of stay increased for hospital discharges and decreased for both procedures and hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning from 1995/96 to 2009/10.
• On average, non-Māori hospitalisations (including those involving injury and poisoning) were longer than those of Māori in 2009/10. However, for hospital procedures, Māori spent slightly longer (on average) in hospital compared with non-Māori.
• Compared with publicly funded patients, the average length of stay was:
  • longer for privately funded hospitalisations in 2009/10
  • shorter for privately funded procedures in 2009/10.
• From 1995/96 to 2009/10 the total number of bed days:
  • increased by nearly 2 million (or 56.9%) for publicly funded hospital discharges
  • increased by almost 400,000 (or 57.5%) for hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning.
• The total number of bed days increased by over 80,000 (or 20.9%) for privately funded hospitalisations from 2004/05 to 2009/10.

Inpatients and day cases

• In 2009/10, day cases accounted for:
  • one out of every three publicly funded hospital discharges
  • one out of every three publicly funded procedures
  • one out of every four hospitalisations involving injury and poisoning.
• Day cases accounted for more than half of all:
  • privately funded hospital discharges (56.0%)
  • privately funded hospital procedures (54.7%) in 2009/10.